Q&A with
Michael Furci - How to increase the size of your biceps

I just checked out your Web site for the first time and am very impressed. I've been lifting weights regularly for about four years now and have put on a decent amount of muscle mass. However, my biceps will not grow. I've tried doing them every three days, one to three different sets, I've tried only doing them once a week, and I've tried twice a week. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Mike L.

A: Mike,

Yours is a very popular plight. No other body-part seems to signify strength, virility or is aesthetically pleasing like an 18- to 20-inch arm on a nicely developed body. Conversely, an 18-inch arm on a man who's 5' 10" and weighs 150 pounds looks absurd. I'm going to assume that you are satisfied with the development of your other body parts. I am also going to assume that you are not a "beach look" lifter. You've seen these guys; every beach and every gym has at least a couple. These are the guys who train chest and biceps and nothing else. They also will pump up before going to the bars, as if it's going to make a damn bit of difference.

Anyway…one point I always stress with questions like yours is that you should never compare your development with that of others. Instead, use them as a fuel for motivation. Striving to make your arm look a certain way is guaranteed failure. You cannot get your arms to look like anybody else's. You're stuck with your genetic make-up. Having said that I do not want you to get discouraged. Anybody can improve his body. To what degree, though, is going to be the limiting factor. We need to take the raw materials you've been given and improve upon them.

The intensity you use while performing your sets, the number of sets and the recovery time you allow between workouts are key. How you train the rest of your body will also play a role in your arms' ability to recover and develop. You did not give me much information about your overall workout routine so I can't really comment on that aspect. Actually, you didn't really get specific with your bicep routine either. How many exercises do you use? How many actual working sets, not warm-ups, do you perform? What are the rep ranges you've been using? Do you take your sets to absolute failure? Do you use tempo when performing your sets? Answers to these questions would have helped me develop your program.

We're going to start by putting you on an every other day routine. Your going to do a four-day split routine, working out every other day. Each body part will be trained every eight days.